The theme of this conference has been chosen to reflect the renewed vitality of research and published scholarship about the Atlantic World economy during period of roughly 1750 to 1820, when the cross currents of commerce and culture were challenged by years of revolutionary fervor in North America, France, and St. Domingue, and episodic economic turmoil from Newfoundland to Caracas. Recent scholarly work about the goods and peoples of the Atlantic economy during this period has introduced new methodologies such as comparative frameworks of investigation. It has asked new questions about how peoples of different races and national origins have blended aspects of their economic development in new environments and under mixed social structures where different "worlds" have met. It has probed new sources and rediscovered ones we thought were familiar in order to examine local and trans-Atlantic economies in fresh ways. It is continually presenting us with new insights about the ideas and ideologies that early modern people expressed about their shifting economies. This new scholarship has also returned to older themes in trans-Atlantic economic development in order to reexamine long-standing generalizations in different imperial, regional, and local contexts.

The papers prepared for this conference highlight aspects of this rich discussion, covering diverse regions and commodities of the Atlantic World, peoples from four continents, and the influences of four empires in the western hemisphere. We invite you to read the papers posted on the PEAES web pages after August 1, 2003 and then join us for a lively discussion about the authors' findings and their implications for the Atlantic World economy.

The entire conference is free and open to everyone interested in this topic. We urge you to let us know in advance if you will attend the conference by visiting the pre-registration page .

Illustration:

Brittannia Mutilated. Or the Horrid (But True) Picture of Great Britain When Depriv'd of Her Limbs. By Her Enemies. Engraving. (London: M. Darly, 1774)

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